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A question to which I have no easy answer. But what’s left for any of us to dream of these days?

23rd September 2010 By Rick Waghorn 11 Comments

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Just to make one thing clear from the start: I don’t have an answer.

I only pose the question because Hull City are next on the agenda; and Northampton beat a seemingly bankrupt Liverpool this week. At Anfield.

The question is this – on the basis that we are not all supporters of a Chelsea, an Arsenal or a Manchester United, what does anyone dream of these days?

I guess the answer to any Cobblers fan this week will be simple; beating Liverpool at Anfield. In a cup competition. And saying to my grandkids: ‘I was there… the night that we beat Liverpool…’

And that’s what football can still do. Just.

Deliver results and nights like that on Merseyside that live forever in our dreams. Or rather, if we are a Northampton fan. If we’re not, then what’s left for the rest of us to hope for?

Maybe ask a passing Tigers fan on Saturday.

‘It must have been a dream season for you, playing in the Premiership…?’

The fear is, of course, that they’ll just turn round and say: ‘Nah, it was a bleedin’ nightmare… and look at us now, back where we started and all but bankrupt… Wish we’d have never gone up…’

I know it is sometimes hard to look at football through the eyes of another football fan; but imagine if you were a Pompey fan… been a Pompey fan man and boy. Or rather boy and man.

And now you were taking your own 10-year-old boy to Fratton Park too. On the back of trips to Wembley with old, lovable H and the promise of a new stadium, you’d managed to actually ensure that your kid supported his home town club… that he was a Pompey Blue, not a Chelsea Blue.

Now what’s he got to look forward to? What can that ten-year-old dream of now? A derby win over Southampton? In League One. That’s what he’s left with.

I’m guessing. Slightly.

But I’d imagine – on reflection – everyone had a ball last season. New grounds; win after win; a title triumph. And the fun continues at the start of this season.

There will be eight, nine, ten-year-old Norfolk kids who are being bitten by the Canary bug; everyone loves a winner. But here’s the real danger for football… or rather for the 65-70% of provincial football club supporters who give the English game its soul, its life and its future.

What is there left to look forward to if promotion to the Premiership proves to be nothing more than a killing field – be it of teenage dreams or, more often, financial security?

How long will it take for a Southampton or a Charlton to recover? And even if they do, eventually, crawl their way back out of the abyss and grab a ticket back into the ‘Promised Land’, what then?

Are they going to be able to cling on for more than a year? If we suspect that Manchester City might muscle into that little clutch of clubs that dominate the English game and that Liverpool – post Hicks – will find some equally wealthy new benefactors to arrive at the helm, is the best any of us can hope for really just sixth?

That ‘doing a Fulham’ and frolicking your way through to the final of the Europa Cup is about as good as it ever gets these days; that and a one-off penalty shoot-out triumph against a Premiership Ressie side…. That’s what we can all look forward to.

Maybe that’s enough. Such hopes and dreams are enough to keep the kids entertained; to keep the kids’ hearts in the right places… supporting their home town teams.

Maybe.

See – and cast me down from on high and stone me till I die – but I wonder whether coming second in a *Championship* Play-Off final at Wembley isn’t a bad dream to have.

Because as good as winning a Championship Play-Off final at Wembley would be, the feel-good factor would last a summer. By the time you were being ripped apart by a Chelsea a la a West Brom or a Blackpool and were left keeping your fingers crossed you could start nicking points at a Bolton, a Blackburn or a Wigan, there’s a part of me that would be getting quite nostalgic for hanging around in the top six of the second flight…

Winning games is nice; it’s fun; the kids love it. Being battered at a half-empty Reebok isn’t much of a laugh.

Of course, the accountants and the suits would say differently. How could anyone not believe that winning a £60 million ticket to the richest football league in the world wasn’t a case of so many Christmas’ coming early?

For who? For the players – and their agents. Yep, sure. For the supporters? Really?

And for the clubs? How many of the clubs of Norwich’s ilk have really ‘cracked it’? Like got the balance right; really right. Do we all dream of being a Bolton? A Wigan?

I guess Aston Villa go close; Fulham under Roy Hodgson got it so, so right… for a while. Minus Hodgson… West Ham could do a Portsmouth; they walk a fine line. Middlesbrough are back among the flotsam and jetsam; Sunderland under Bruce… maybe they can keep the magic alive; I rarely see The Stadium Of Light full to the rafters… is the joy unbounded on the banks of the Wear? I don’t know.

Congratulations if you are a Cobblers fan; good luck to you in Saturday’s fourth round draw; get yourself a plum Premiership tie at home; fill your boots; let the TV cameras roll.

This could be your year. This could be the season when – for once – dreams come true.

How many dreams will come true for the rest of us is, of course, another matter.


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Filed Under: Column, Rick Waghorn

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Comments

  1. Andy Watson says

    24th September 2010 at 2:14 am

    Rick

    I agree with you. I think there is something to be said for being a top half championship team in the present football climate. It would probably be disastrous for Norwich to get promoted this season. They would feel forced to invest large sums of money in players and wages, and in all likelihood come tumbling back down with huge debts and a completely destabilised club. Eighth place would suit me just fine. The club desperately needs a period of stability and a solid championship campaign will bring just that.

    Reply
  2. Jeff Ford says

    24th September 2010 at 4:16 am

    LOL, nice to see the journo’s playing catch up…..

    Reply
  3. Chris Riches says

    24th September 2010 at 12:29 pm

    Thanks, Rick – I was enjoying my Friday before reading that!

    Too many truths for comfort, I’m afraid. I used to vehemently oppose talk of the European Super League, but now I wish the “Big Clubs” would just clear off and do it – abdicate completely from any involvement in domestic competitions (League, or Cup) and let the rest of compete on a more level playing field.

    I have Scottish friends who’d gladly wave goodbye to the occasional bumper crowd from a visit of the Glasgow Two, in return for a meaningful league which most could aspire to win from time to time. That is a proposal which resonates with me, these days, as I believe the remaining fixtures would assume greater importance.

    Who knows, maybe free-to-air television could once more afford to show live league games? We could return to a more sensible regime of, perhaps, only two live matches – one Saturday evening and one Sunday afternoon. That really ought to be enough and would ease travel problems for thousands of visiting fans each week, as well as boosting attendances by withdrawing the armchair drip-feed from the sofa-bound addicts.

    Now, there’s a dream to put a smile back on my Friday face :)!!!

    Reply
  4. Mahogany says

    24th September 2010 at 4:07 pm

    Have to say I’ve always liked how American sports do it. Have local smaller leagues then larger conferences that determine who and how many times you play a team, the results of that lead to a play-off and then a final championship game.

    Everyone has a chance at winning because if you can sneak into the play-offs you have a real shot at beating anyone in a one off game. I mean look at American Football, in the last 10 years 14 different teams have reached the final and 7 have won the Superbowl.

    Compare that the the Premiership where since it’s inception 18 seasons ago only five teams have won it and only another three have made it to 2nd place and another three to 3rd.

    Reply
  5. Michael Drinkwater says

    24th September 2010 at 8:56 pm

    The other thing that American sports do, which I had never thought I would be wanting to see in England is establishing wage caps for an entire team (and sometimes transfer caps too). Certainly I agree with the sentiments that either these need limiting in the Premiership, or a different structure is needed.I follow American baseball more than American football, and there too, no team, even one like the New York Yankees, can dominate for too long a period in the sport. It would be wonderful to see that back in the Premiership.

    Otherwise, I agree with Rick, I constantly wonder what exactly can a team like City aspire to in the Premiership? Mid-table obscurity is hardly an ambition to stir the blood.

    Reply
  6. Adrian Rutherford says

    24th September 2010 at 9:05 pm

    Mick Dennis visited this theme while we were sliding out of the Championship, prompted by overhearing some Bristol City fans discussing just this on the train back to London.

    It’s justifiable going up and collecting the “jackpot” to eradicate debt as long as the Carra Rud regime – board, Mac and PL – all can square that with the fans and particularly the players who understandably would fancy the cash and the challenge.

    If the big six bugger off to a Euro league, the PL rump will be no more attractive than the the Championship as the SKY money goes along with them, the foreigners then all clear off and the clubs come cap in hand to the FL to be allowed back in.

    Wasn’t it Icarus in the Greek legend who flew too close to the sun? Seems to me that PL clubs are risking all by flying too close to the SUN ie News Corp who own SKY, and and to the whims of idle rich from sunny climes. I feel sorry for their fans but not for the greedy bast-ions (stew-ards) who have sold out and bought in.

    Last season demonstrated admirably that squillions and over paid primo dons are necessary for entertainment, engagement and enjoyment. I’d rather see City in the Dutch League than struggle in the Premier – and Amsterdam’s nearer than most UK Cities!

    Reply
  7. Adrian Rutherford says

    24th September 2010 at 9:07 pm

    Correction to above : squillions etc NOT necessary for entertainment etc!

    Reply
  8. Andrew Stronach says

    27th September 2010 at 12:44 pm

    Norwich City are my second team. My “home” team is Aberdeen. Hard to explain to my kids that when I was their age I watched the Dons beat Real Madrid in a European final.
    It’s not something that’ll happen again and that’s where the football dream is dying. The unlikely is becoming the impossible. Radix malorum est cupiditas and all that…

    Reply
  9. Chris Riches says

    27th September 2010 at 1:03 pm

    I agree with Adrian, when he says “If the big six bugger off to a Euro league, the PL rump will be no more attractive than the the Championship as the SKY money goes along with them, the foreigners then all clear off and the clubs come cap in hand to the FL to be allowed back in.”

    However, I don’t see this as a bad thing. Let the silly money follow the billionaires to a Super League – it’s worth the price to reclaim the soul of football, where aspiring to climb from the very bottom of the pyramid to the very top is, once again, an achievable dream.

    Reply
  10. Jim says

    30th September 2010 at 3:02 pm

    Couldn’t agree more – Norwich City used to dream of competing in Europe, getting to a major cup final and – once upon a time – winning the Premier League. Those days are long gone and will never return. Unfortunately, getting back to the Premier League and becoming ‘a Bolton’ or ‘a Fulham” is about as good as it’s going to get.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Weekly football links « twofootedtackle.com says:
    1st October 2010 at 2:00 pm

    […] A question to which I have no easy answer. But what’s left for any of us to dream of these days? – Rick Waghorn on the futility of English football […]

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